THE WINNERS

ERIKA HEYNATZ AND DAVID HOBSON

ERIKA HEYNATZhas undergone the experience of a lifetime to become the series champion of the debut series of IT TAKES TWO last night, battling it out against Sarah Ryan in a duet singing show down.

After ten exciting weeks, last night in their Grand Final performance Erika Heynatz and her singing partner Opera singer David Hobson faced their toughest challenge by having to perform four songs to take out the title of It Takes Two series champions.

The Grand Finalists kicked off the night going head to head with
Sarah Ryan and her singing partner
Guy Sebastian on stage together belting out the Kylie Minogue classic
On A Night Like This . The couples then performed two encore performances - best slow and best up tempo song plus a new song representative of their journey during the series.

Erika and David's hard hitting performance of the rock class
I Was Made For Loving You impressed the judges giving them a score of 39. The couple then gave a show stopping rendition of the ballad
Without You with a score of 38 and followed up with their journey song
Against All Odds topping it off with a score of 35.

"If you show people your heart and soul you are rewarded. It means an enormous amount to have this reward at the end of something I have worked really, really hard at. I am very lucky I have got David who has really provoked incredible change because I think he has really been tough and pushed me to the limit and that has made me rise to the challenge. It is a huge goal to be able to stand and feel comfortable and deserve to be there", Erika said.

"We have had a fantastic finish to a great journey. We have been given a wonderful opportunity and it has been a privilege and honour to work with fantastic people. I personally think Erika has grown over the past 10 weeks more than I would have expected and I have fed off her as well as I have been in unchartered waters. I am incredibly proud of her, our relationship was about truth and dedication and hard work. What Erika has showed is that if she opens up all the hard work pays off", David said.

Erika is not the only one to benefit from her time on the show. Her charity the Aids Trust of Australia will receive proceeds from the phone votes polled for her throughout the series.

Runner up Sarah Ryan walks away holding her head high receiving some of the highest scores so far in the competition.

"Sarah is amazing and such a wonderful lady and it has been an amazing journey to do this with her. While we have amazing times together it has also been incredibly challenging for her. Overall it will be something she will never forget and that I will never forget either," her singing partner Guy said.

The entire cast of It Takes Two celebrities and their professional singing partners all returned to sing
We Are Family celebrating their decision to take on the challenge of singing LIVE in front of a national audience each week.

International guest
NICK LACHEY joined the show live for his only Australian performance of his Top Ten debut single
What's Left of Me .

In a
world exclusive GUY SEBASTIAN performed a song written during his journey on the show. Co-written with It Takes Two musician and backing vocalist Gary Pinto, Guy performed
Taller, Stronger, Better for the first time on Sunday night.

It Takes Twois the Australian production of the BBC format "Just The Two Of Us" and is a co-production between BBC Worldwide and Seven.